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Keep an eye on Mike Huckabee

An interesting contrast between the Democrat and Republican presidential contenders is that the Republicans have no clear front runner. There are big names, of course - Giuliani, McCain, Romney - but none of them have succeeded in capturing a majority of rank-and-file Republican supporters.

Attorney-actor-Senator Fred Thompson succeeded in generating a lot of publicity by playing the tough guy on YouTube and then waiting until the last minute to announce his candidacy, but critics are already ganging up on Thompson because he has been rather wimpy on the debate stage.

Huck (I like calling him that) is an ordained Southern Baptist minister but not a Kool-Aid drinking member of the SBC. His popularity seems to be growing among religious Republicans who are fearful of a socially liberal candidate like Giuliani or who are uncomfortable with Mitt Romney (partly because he is Mormon, but mostly because his Richy Rich image may hamper his appeal to the general public). In fact, Huckabee is now the pick of many of those erstwhile Thompson supporters.

Conservative intellectuals, at least the variety who view the world solely through the lens of economic growth, are already going to war against Huck. They must be rather desperate, considering that they are willing to lump such disparate groups as The Club For Growth and The Moral Majority together as examples of the kind of "conservatism" that Mike Huckabee has supposedly abandoned. In response to these attacks, former Arkansas journalist Lucas Roebuck has defended Huckabee's honor nicely.

From what I know about Mike Huckabee, he seems like a worthwhile candidate. He is not a socialist and seems to be reasonable with respect to his tax policies; that is, tax what is necessary to provide necessary services, yet avoid excess government growth and excessive progressive taxation. He is also a devout Christian, yet he broke with the Fallwell-dominated leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention years ago, and does not seem to be a sock puppet for the Dobson-Robertson-TBN axis. Huckabee could score a lot of points with the public a large by openly spurning the "religious right" and pledging that Republicans under his leadership will not beholden to them.

Huck's only disadvantage, right now, seems to be in the area of foreign policy. This is not unusual for governors of course, and if other leading candidates from both parties keep 'stepping in it', so to speak, with respect to foreign policy blunders, then Huckabee could have a decent chance to establish himself as a leader who honors the threat of radical Islam and pledges to keep nuclear and chemical weapons out of the hands of dangerous governments, but who will also keep US military entanglements to a minimum.

Keep an eye on this guy ... he may be the Cinderella candidate many of us have been looking for.

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In response to a commenter who questioned the relationship between the SBC and Jerry Falwell - while Falwell was never a leader of the SBC, the Southern traditionalism and fundamentalist Baptist beliefs espoused by Jerry Falwell certainly resonate with the beliefs and direction of the contemporary SBC. To wit:

[Southern Baptist Convention President Frank Page] said Falwell "was delighted to witness the conservative direction of
the Southern Baptist Convention in the last decades." Falwell came to
his first SBC annual meeting as a messenger in 1998 in Salt Lake City.
One year later, Liberty University and Southern Baptist Conservatives
of Virginia reached an agreement of various forms of partnership.

"Dr. Jerry Falwell was a true friend and supporter of the Southern
Baptist Conservatives of Virginia," said Doyle Chauncey, executive
director-treasurer of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia.
"While we mourn this tremendous loss, we rejoice in the many years we
had with this local church pastor and man of God. In fact, his was one
of the first phone calls pledging support for the formation of the SBCV
in 1996. Our hearts and our prayers go out to his family as well as the
Thomas Road Baptist and Liberty University families."

In 2005,
Falwell spoke at the SBC Pastor's Conference, reminding the ministers
there that today's pastors have an unprecedented opportunity to take
the Gospel around the world thanks to the tools of modern
communications and transportation.

This Google search will also provide more links between the ideologies of the SBC and Falwell.

A well-reasoned article and analysis on the GOP race. As your piece noted Huckabee is by most measurements the best qualified GOP candidate. Check out just a few of his qualifications:

1. He has vowed to aggresively confront and defeat the Islamo fascists and to make the US a strong and respected nation. Huckabee loves this nation and will demonstrate that patriotic love by being a strong leader.

2. He has promised to stop the anarchic invasion of the US by illegal immigrants and will most likely fulfill that promise in a way that is just and humane and puts the interest of the US upfront.

3. He has the most executive experience of the entire GOP field.

4. He has the best proven managerial competence. Time magazine named him as one of the FIVE BEST governors in 200.

5. Of all the GOP candidates he has the greatest cross-over appeal in terms of the red-blue divide and stands the greatest chance of attracting massive numbers of conservative and moderate Democrats in the presidential election.

Good article. I've been waiting for Huckabee to run for president for about 3 years now. One correction, though. Falwell was not a Southern Baptist, he was an Independent Baptist. Independents are more strict(conservative) than SBCers.

Good article. I've been waiting for Huckabee to run for president for about 3 years now. One correction, though. Falwell was not a Southern Baptist, he was an Independent Baptist. Independents are more strict(conservative) than SBCers.

In all fairness I don't think you know what you are talking about. You mentioned the Southern Baptist being dominated by Falwell. Jerry Falwell was never part of the southern baptist convention. Where did you get this info?

I appreciate your article about Mike Huckabee. It speaks to the way I have been feeling about him. I would also suggest, as one of the comments mentions, that you watch the speech give by Huckabee at CSIS. I think it shows he has as good a grasp on foreign policy as the other candidates, if not better.

You are right about him not being a puppet for the religious right leaders and I think that is the reason they have not endorsed him. They would rather have someone whom they could boss around, instead of someone whom would lead this country in the direction it needs to go.